Live for Today, Hope for Tomorrow
by BittersweetSummer
Summary: Moments in the life of a young Victoire Weasley.


_We wound a race track_  
_Through your mom's kitchen chairs_  
_And fought the shadows back_  
_Down your dark basement stairs_

"Teddy, Teddy! Go, go, go!"

She clapped her hands, singing him praises as she hopped up and down, cheering for him (and only him).

"You're supposed to be playing too, Vicky. You're the one racing me, aren't you?"

Their "brooms," or sticks found in Fleur Weasley's garden, lay discarded among the kitchen chairs as she looked up at him apologetically.

"Sorry Teddy. Forgot."

"It's okay."

And he smiles, and she's happy, because her Teddy could never be mad at her for long.

* * *

Victoire doesn't want to tell Teddy this, but she does not like visiting his house.

When they are there, Teddy's grandmum (_or Grandma Andy as Teddy likes to call her_) watches them play with sad eyes.

Once Victoire catches her crying over something. She thinks it's the picture of Teddy's mum and dad that he likes to show her whenever she visits.

_(He says they're just lost, but lately Victoire thinks he may be wrong.)_

Now Grandma Andy is staring at Teddy with her sad eyes as he changes his hair from blue to green to red then blue again.

Something about her gaze bothers Victoire, but she'll never tell Teddy that.

* * *

When the rain pounds down on the roof and they can hear the sea roaring, they play "Monsters" in the basement of Victoire's house.

Sometimes Victoire is the monster and sometimes Teddy is the monster, but Victoire always loses when Teddy's the evil one, because her Teddy could never be a monster to her.

Today both of them are fighting against an invisible monster, one that they call "You-Know-What," because in reality, they don't know exactly _what _they're fighting, but pretend that they do.

The monster is roaring, and she's shrieking while they run up the basement stairs. Teddy stabs at the You-Know-What with an old stick that they found on the beach yesterday while she opens the door, letting in the welcome light of the kitchen.

They scamper past the door and slam it shut, then lean against it, panting.

"You saved us, Teddy! We won!"

"He's not gone yet, Vicky. Can you hear him?"

She strains her ears, and can hear the roar of the You-Know-What among the pounding of the rain. She feels tired.

"Will he ever go away, Teddy?"

"Just keep fighting, Vicky. Good always wins in the end."

* * *

Sometimes she sees Teddy staring at her Papa a lot. She does not know what he is thinking when he looks at Papa, but that does not stop her from asking him.

Teddy says that Papa is not normal. Something about her Papa makes him sad.

She doesn't know what's wrong with her Papa. Teddy should love her Papa too, she thinks, because she loves both Teddy and Papa, and they should love each other too.

She asks her Maman about it one day (because she tells her Maman everything) and Maman sighs, telling her that there is nothing wrong with Papa, and she'll find out why Teddy stares later on, when she's older.

"I'm old enough now," she argues, and Maman laughs, telling her that she'll get her answer, but not now.

...

...

Victoire gets her answer a few years later and wishes that she hadn't asked in the first place.

* * *

_War _is a word they are not used to, but one that they understand means sadness. _War _is why Teddy's grandmum doesn't smile, and why Victoire's father has—she squints as she tries to remember the word— _scars_.

She thinks that Teddy's grandmum's… _scars _are worse than her Papa's, even though nobody can see them.

_Scars _are things to be proud of, her Maman tells her.

But secretly, Victoire is glad that she doesn't have any _scars_.

* * *

They're sitting side by side and facing the water, watching the waves pound against the cliff side. She leans her head on his shoulder and speaks over the noise of the sea, eyes glinting in the midday sun.

"Was he brave, Teddy?"

"I'm sure he was, Vicky. Braver than any one of us."

She asks the question that's been in her mind all day.

"Do you think we could become as brave as him one day, Teddy?"

He thinks for a minute before answering.

"Yes."

And she nods, looking back at the stone that she's read plenty of times before, one that Uncle Harry visits whenever he comes. She hopes that he's happy, wherever he is.

_HERE LIES DOBBY, A FREE ELF_

_

* * *

_

She hates her birthday.

Sometimes she wants her family to forget about it, to pretend that May the second doesn't exist anymore so that she doesn't have to see everybody's sad eyes when she's blowing out the candles.

So on her eighth birthday she runs out of the room, crying.

She decides that she doesn't want to celebrate her birthday any more. She can stay seven for all of her life.

But then Teddy is there, and he's hugging her and not telling her that she got his shirt wet or that her face is red and blotchy.

And suddenly she's not crying anymore.

"Blow out the candles, Victoire," her Papa says.

"Make a wish," Teddy tells her.

But she stares at him, and he's smiling at her, and thinks that she already has all that she wants right in front of her.

_A best friend._

_

* * *

_

_**As you can see, many things inspired the birth of this oneshot. I was listening to "Hot Air Balloon" by Owl City because it makes me happy, and the third stanza inspired me to write this. I originally meant for it to be a cute, fluffy oneshot, but it sort of morphed while I was typing it up. The title comes from the lovely Albert Einstein quote at the bottom.**_

_**Reviews are love.**_

_**...**_

_**...  
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_**"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." —Albert Einstein**_


End file.
